Every time I make a batch of homemade peanut butter, I ask myself why I’ve been cheating my body with the store bought kind loaded with sugars and preservatives. I’m not hating on Jif (because let’s get real, that’s what I grew up eating and it tastes like candy), but check out their ingredient list…
Peanuts. check
Sugar. Uncheck
Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil. Uncheck
Mono-And Diglycerides. Uncheck
Salt. Check
Now that I’ve made my own peanut butter, I can see that all you really need to make peanut butter is peanuts (plus salt and a natural sweetener if you please). The peanuts have enough natural fats in them to get creamy, where you don’t need to add additional oil. Also, if you keep it refrigerated, preservatives are unnecessary.
I wasn’t exactly sure what a Mono-AndDigyceride was, so I asked Carly:
Me: “Do you know what trigylcerides are?”
Carly: “It’s a glycerol molecule with three fatty acids attached to it. thus a mono or di-glycerides are glycerols with one or two fatty acids on it, respectively.”
Me: “So why is that added to Jif peanut butter?”
Carly: “I wouldn’t worry so much about the trigylcerides in peanut butter as the trans fat. Jif peanut butter stays congealed (and not drippy) when it has trans fat in it, which is not good.”
Me: “Trans fats aren’t listed in the ingredient list?”
Carly: “That’s probably because they contain less than 1/2 gram, but if hydrogenated oil is listed on the ingredients panel then it’s in there. That’s where you have to be careful, because most people wouldn’t know that.”
Interesting…Thus, homemade peanut butter is healthier and tastier because you know exactly what’s in it!
This jar was actually made for Blake’s mom and step dad as a token of appreciation. I made one for them and a few for myself.
It’s delicious topped on oatmeal, on bread, or just on a spoon!
Have you ever made your own nut-butter?
What are your thoughts on store-bought peanut butter?
